Thursday, 20 March 2014

Heavy Wednesday

When we first moved here, some 17 years ago, I applied to the local council to see if we could rent a garage. I was very happy to be accepted, and took the offered garage. It was to store DH's kit car. It's not too far away.

Over the years we've discussed (sometimes quite animatedly) whether we should keep the garage, but we can't agree with what to do with the now-non-running car. The garage was home to my carriage as well, for a while. And all the spare roof tiles, leftover from when we had the house re-roofed. We kept them as we were considering adding a porch at some future unspecified date.

The subject came up again recently, prompted by the SORN declaration. Out of the blue, I suggested that, if we were keeping the car and garage, maybe we should try and get a garage in the block which was nearer our house. We can see thse from the back of the house.

I checked online, and saw that no garages in the block were available. I emailed the local council, now housing authority, to ask about availability and to ask if I could be put on the waiting list. I explained that I wanted to swap garages.

Why did I want to swap? was the reply.

I was a little embarrassed to say that the desired block is less than 30 seconds walk from my house, whereas the existing one is about two minutes walk. I was also a bit loathe to tell them that I would be happier being able to keep an eye on my garage - it's not as if we've ever had trouble at the old ones.

In the end, I explained that it was almost literally "on my doorstep", and I sent her a marked google map picture.

To my delight, a garage was available, and I could swap immediately. While I went down to sort out the paperwork, DH went to the garage to start loading the car with roof tiles. We'd then be able to unload the tiles into the new garage, then puch the kitcar down the road, and then I could give the old keys back.

The lady at the Housing Association was very helpful. Several forms later, plus a deposit, plus rent in advance, and I had my keys. I also completed the termination form for the other garage, and promised I'd be back with the keys as soon as we had pushed the car from one garage to the other.

I got a text to say that there was a bit more stuff in the garage than we remembered. And the car's brakes were seized. Ans the tyres were flat. He was using the portable tyre pump, but it had to cool down after each tyre and was taking some time.

So.

The new garage needed a sweep out, there was a lot of detritis and broken glass. When that was done, we moved the roof tiles. There were indeed a lot of roof tiles.

Then back to the old one, and we loaded the two kitchen cabinets. And the Ducal bookcase. The kitchen cabinets went into the garage, the bookcase came into the house so I could clean it up and give it to my brother.

Next, we had to try and tow the car our of the garage. By the time we reached the new garage, the brakes had unseized and DH was able to manouevre it in.

Next, we had the huge tub of horse paraphernalia, including the
electric fencing tape that I had been hunting hihg and low for some time
ago. And the baling twine. And the crops. And the feed scoop. And
the lunge lines. And the bridle bracket. The horse stuff went into the garage, and I contacted the
local horse rescue centre to offer it to them.

Finally, was the stuff that needed to go to the Tip. Lots and lots of once-new underlay, that was a bit the worse for being stored in the garage. Another ktchen cabinet, now rotted from damp. Some random bits of wood. Some childrens badminton racquets. A helicopter which connects to a sprinkler. etc etc.

A trip to the tip, and then I popped back in to the Housing Asssociation to return the keys. I explained that there had been a bit more stuff in the garage than we expected...

...but I suspect that she had worked that out from the state of my clothes.